He was asked:

“An endowment for the poor and needy contains olive trees and other trees that bear little fruit in some years. If they were cut down and sold, their proceeds could purchase property yielding more income. May the administrator do this? If some beneficiaries ask him to cut down the trees, sell them and distribute the proceeds among them, are they entitled to this, or should property be purchased instead?

“If someone assumes responsibility for the endowment and finds that his predecessor has altered the founder’s stipulations, then strives to implement those stipulations, may he receive the customary stipend despite having been unable to fulfil them? This administrator is poor and has no wealth. May he receive something from the share allocated to the poor and administer the endowment without remuneration? Please clarify this for us.”

He replied:

“Praise be to Allah. Yes, those trees may be sold and their proceeds used to purchase something yielding more income. Trees are like buildings: the administrator may change the form of an endowment to one that better serves its interests, just as the Rightly Guided Caliphs altered the form of the two mosques in the two Holy Sanctuaries, and as ʿUmar ibn al-Khattāb moved the mosque of Kufa from one location to another, and in other similar cases.

“The proceeds from selling the trees must not be distributed among the current beneficiaries, because trees are like buildings: their sale proceeds do not belong exclusively to the current beneficiaries. This is not on the same footing as trees, crops and benefits from which each successive group of beneficiaries is exclusively entitled to whatever is obtained during its own time.